


Enthusiasm's a Good Thing

by KaijuusAndKryptids



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Crushes, F/F, Halloween Costumes, Overcoming fears, Social Anxiety, halloween party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 06:31:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12500996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaijuusAndKryptids/pseuds/KaijuusAndKryptids
Summary: Yachi Hitoka capital 'L'-Loves Halloween as much as she Loves Sci-fi. But she's had the traumatic costume incident of senior year to ruin Halloween for her! Now that she's a college freshman she has a fresh start with her best friend. Will she ever be able to overcome her fears and learn to love her favorite holiday again?





	Enthusiasm's a Good Thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [linumlea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/linumlea/gifts).



> I hope you like it! 
> 
> A lot of this is pretty close to my heart so I adored writing it! I'm surprised that it's twice as long as my previously "longest fanfic" 0o0' It's what they deserve hehehe

"Would I ever lie to you?" 

  
Yachi raises one neatly plucked eyebrow at Hinata's shameless fluttering eyelashes and politician's smile. A minute goes by where neither kid gives any ground, Yachi stubbornly holding on to her disbelief. She won't be pushed into doing this again! Hinata breaks first. 

  
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry for ditching you last time-" Yachi crosses her arms. "-Okay, and the time before that, but to be fair Kageyama didn't give me a choice! Well, that time anyway." He trails off, chasing that spiraling thought before Yachi snaps her fingers, startling him out of his stupor. "Right, Point is: This party's going to be a lot smaller, and Yamaguchi's going to be there! So even IF- and I mean it this time- IF you lose me, you can always look for Yamaguchi and hang out with him until I find you again!" 

  
  
Yachi sighs. Hinata sure is convincing. But! But Yachi told herself that she's going to put her foot down. She doesn't like parties, no siree, but she likes Hinata and great as he is, he's so scatterbrained that she always ends up by herself at all these scary dorms with scary upperclassmen! "I don't see why you  _need_  me to go with you! You can go by yourself and talk to all the people there, I wouldn't have fun anyway." 

  
"Hitokaaaa~" He whines. "Being anxious but missing out on something you want to do won't make you feel better! You're always sick with grief for a week afterwards anyway. Plus I know you too well to take you seriously when you say you don't want to go." His devious smile makes a grand reappearance with that smug sing-song tone. "And it's Halloween~!" 

  
Yachi flushes and stamps her foot against the floor. Hinata leans into her field of vision, shit eating grin ever present. "Come on! People won't even recognize you!" 

  
Seeing that Yachi refuses to bend still, he sighs. "I'll ask Suga-Sempai to pick out costumes, but for the record I thought your Scully was very cute."

  
"Shouyou!" Yachi yells throwing her hand in his face. "You promised not to bring that up again!" 

  
He apologizes again, but his devious smile tells her he's not entirely sorry. She thinks over what he's said about her missing out on something she  _does_  want to do. And it's true. She does want to go. She just can't stand the thought of what all those people are going to think of her. If they'll think she's weird for not talking to anyone but Hinata and Yamaguchi; If she's over-dressed or worse, under-dressed; If she loses Hinata again and has to pull Suga away from his friends to give her a ride home again. Oh gosh she's so nervous!

  
Hinata rubs a thumb on her hand and she blinks up at him. A soft smile and gentle eyes stare back at her, and she's reminded why he's been called the Sunshine Boy at their high school. Those nasty clouds of doom and gloom and anxiety are dissipated just enough that she can reason out all the reasons she definitely wants to go.

  
Halloween is much more fun with friends, the volleyball team members are all so nice even if they're intimidating, and she promised herself that she'd make at least one more friend this year outside of her classes so she can expand her social circles. 

  
  
"Okay. I'll go." Yachi relents.

  
  
Hinata's smile is warm and genuine and small. "Good, I'm proud of you." Then his excitement flares back up and he squeezes Yachi's hand tighter. "This is going to be so fun! I've gotta call Suga right now to get him on costume duty." 

  
She blinks at the flash of orange in her vision and blinks again to an empty room. She tries not to stew on her anxieties too much for the rest of the weekend, promising to bring it up in counseling on Monday.   


* * *

  
With Monday morning comes an unusually warm sunny day. Well, warmer than just below freezing. Warm enough that Yachi can get away with wearing only one pair of fleece-lined tights under her favorite plum colored skirt and still be warm! She stretches her arms above her head as she leaves the Health Services building and makes her way over to the campus coffee shop. She doesn't mind the line so much Monday mornings. The pretty barista works Mondays, and Yachi doesn't have class for another hour anyway. She's calm as she watches the pretty barista flutter nimble fingers over the different pumps, cups, and machinery behind the counter; and her small twitch of lips in a polite smile as she hands the drinks to their owners; and the way her grey eyes look so warm and inviting as she peeks over her glasses at the next customer in line. 

  
"Do you need another minute to think?" Wow, even her voice is pretty; a soft lullaby played on a violin. Yachi doesn't hear a reply and looks around to see who could be so rude as to not answer the gorgeous barista.  _Oh god_. Yachi swallows down a squeak and nods quickly. The barista smiles and nods in acknowledgement. "Take your time."

  
Yachi can tell her face is flushed scarlet. It burns the way that shame always does, like salt in the wounds. This dark haired angel, bless her, pulls over the seasonal drink menu and holds Yachi's gaze. "I really recommend the Jack-O-Lantern. It's a sweeter pumpkin caramel latte. You seem like the type to like sweet drinks." She says with a gentle laugh, more encouraging than derisive.

  
  
Yachi mumbles in agreement and stumbles through the whole encounter. She doesn't realize when she sat down but she blinks a few times and sighs.  _She's a goddess! She knew exactly the kind of drinks I would like just by looking at me!_ A boy throws himself into the seat next to her and she squeaks in surprise! His angelic smile and embarrassed laugh are so charming and refreshing and he extends a warm smile to her. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you! I brought your surprise Halloween costume." He says with a wink. 

  
  
Yachi looks at Suga in awe. "Oh, thank you." She can't help but feel like her words are insufficient. He smiles warmly anyway. Everything about him is warm, from his dark pea coat to his red scarf, and his open body language. Yachi smiles at his kind-heartedness. As the beauty calls her name he walks up with her and starts up a conversation with her. He seems to know everyone!

  
"Kiyoko!"

  
"Hello Suga."

  
  
He smiles wide. "Were you able to get Halloween off of work?" He leans on the counter with his forearms. Yachi thinks he looks terribly handsome like that. Kiyoko smiles shyly and nods. Yachi thinks Kiyoko must also find him terribly handsome. She wants to leave now. Suga perks up and says, "Great! We'll see you then!" And winks before he walks with Yachi out of the cafe. Like the gentleman he is, he opens the door for her and she thanks him. "Tell me how it fits. If you don't like it, I have a few back ups." 

  
  
"Ah, that's too kind of you." Yachi blushes and holds the bag tighter to her chest. 

  
  
"Not every person's as excited about Halloween as us!" Suga must see her mortified look and pats Yachi on the shoulder in a way that comforts her, even if it was anyone else she'd be uneasy. "Hinata explained everything to me, but in my opinion I think that's really cool. People who don't celebrate holidays are boring." 

  
  
Yachi offers him a reassured smile and waves goodbye to him as she turns back to her dorm, coffee warming her hands and costume warming her heart.   


* * *

  
Halloween. The greatest day of the year. The day that complete strangers dress in costumes and go to other costumed people's houses for candies or parties. Yachi has never felt more alive. She hears a rhythmic knocking on the door and tremors like a shaken soda fizzing over rack her body. She throws open the door to see a Red PowerRanger shimmying and pretending to give a drumroll. Hinata pulls off his helmet to get a better look. He sees the obvious joy on her face and the sparkle in her eye and coos at her. 

  
  
"Morton Salt Girl. That's fitting." 

  
  
Yachi swats at him but can't cover up her smile. "Suga has good taste." Hinata nods and coos again at her. She runs into the kitchen to grab her carton of salt and white umbrella. 

  
  
As they walk up to Captain Daichi's house, Hinata starts hyping Yachi up again. "This is going to be so fun! I'll introduce you to all my teammates and then we can go eat all Daichi's Reeses Cups in the backyard and throw the wrappers at Kageyama!" Yachi rolls her eyes at the last part but is otherwise excited.

 

* * *

 

 

They don't quite reach the door before it's thrown open and two skeletons tackle them into headlocks and pull them in the door. Yachi doesn't hear a word they're yelling, nearly fainting in the shorter ones arms. In the darkness of the house, Yachi can see that their skeleton face paint glows in the dark. They fist bump each other and Yachi leans heavily on Hinata who laughs. "Noya! Tanaka! Take it easy on Yachi, she's sensitive." He says with a honeyed voice and if she had the composure to punch him she would. Noya, the shorter one who dragged her inside, gasps and whips his head to look at her again. He drags her (more gently this time) to the refreshments table and pours a drink for her. He hands it to her a little too quickly, and Tanaka, the taller one, rears her back before it can spill over the cup on to her and yells back, "Don't ruin her dress, Idiot Noya!" and the two start to bicker.

  
In all of her jostled up glory, Yachi is dizzy and traumatized and doesn't quite realize that a prince has swooped in and shooed away the skeletons. He hands her a drink more calmly and gracefully than the skeletons, but that's not hard to beat. She looks up to thank him, and gasps when she sees Suga's smiling face. She's immediately reassured while Hinata makes his way over as quickly as he can, which isn't very fast since he keeps getting stopped every few feet by another member of the volleyball team. She brings her focus back on Suga. "Sorry about them. They act like they've never seen a girl before." 

  
  
Yachi giggles a little at that. She pushes hair out of her face and thanks him, "The costume is perfect." 

  
  
"I thought it might suit you." He must see her blush and waves his hand dismissively, "I meant that you look like her, and have the same hair is all. You seem much more like the Morton Sugar Girl than salt, if I had to go off of your personality." 

  
She blushes harder. "You're really taking that Prince Charming costume seriously." 

  
  
"Hm?" He looks down at himself and back to Yachi's face, confusion written over his features. "I'm a vampire!" He beams, pointing out the fangs glued to his teeth. He laughs again. "I guess there isn't really much of a difference between Dracula and a Prince aside from blood and fangs. Maybe I should get some blood." he winks. Suga makes his way to the kitchen presumably looking for ketchup and Yachi turns around to watch Hinata approach. He’s carrying her dropped salt bucket and umbrella.

 

The skeleton boys make another loud scene as another guest walks in, and Yachi's eyes are drawn to the noise almost instinctively. There she sees the most gorgeous lady walk in and wave off the skeleton boys with such grace and nimble fingers.  _Oh boy._ Yachi would recognize that costume anywhere. Zoe Washburn from Firefly. Yachi didn't think she'd see another Firefly fan, much less such a pretty female one.Yachi feels approximately one (1) gay feeling and maybe a few jealous ones over this lovely specimen interacting with such a wild crowd with as much grace and composure as she has. 

  
  
Hinata takes this moment to punch her arm with a million watt smile and asks, "Not too bad, right?" Yachi nods along, still a little spaced out from gay whiplash and shaken from seeing such a gorgeous nerd-girl. She pointedly does  **not**  point out Zoe and instead distracts Hinata by pointing to the Red PowerRanger marching their way from the kitchen. He pulls off his helmet and glares at Hinata, yelling at him to change. She watches Hinata bristle up and scream back, "No way! You change!" And she sighs, taking her props from Hinata’s arms before he thinks to dump her salt on Kageyama. Hinata may bitch and moan about Kageyama all day long, but nobody (especially not Hinata) talks about people they hate that much unless they're covering up a secret crush. 

  
  
Kageyama snaps out of his anger long enough to nod at Yachi and give her a neutral "Hello Yachi." She figures he recognizes her from their shared study hour at the same library table; not because she hangs out with his 'mortal enemy'. Hopefully. He smiles at her polite reply before going back to glaring daggers at Hinata. Yachi excuses herself mumbling something about saying hi to Yamaguchi. She doesn't want to stick around for their weird courting rituals. In her quest to sneak away from the party, she nearly runs right into the cute Zoe on the fringes of the dance floor.  _Oh Heck No_. She turns on her heel so fast she bumps into a broad mummy that she vaguely recognizes as one of Suga's proteges. He simply smiles at her and introduces himself. Ennoshita. He’s sweet and plain, but she doesn't really pay attention further than that. She's polite on autopilot, but her thoughts are racing a mile per minute. 

  
  
_Oh god she's so pretty. Firefly was cancelled too soon! She smells so nice, and she's got such accurate details on her Zoe. She's so graceful. I'm going to throw up!_  Apparently she looks like that last thought, because she finds herself subtly escorted to the first floor bathroom, and she's so flustered and embarrassed but remembers to thank Ennoshita before taking a moment to dab her face with cold water. She leaves her props in the pile of coats by the front door, so she can grab them when she leaves, and sits in the bathroom just a little longer for a few more moments of quiet to drown out the noise in her head. Three counts to fifteen later, the noise in her head has lessened enough that she can’t justify holing up any longer.

  
  
Steeling herself with a deep breath, she opens the door with a plan to horde a bunch of Reeses Cups and wait out Hinata at the top of the staircase. Well, that plan flies out the window when Zoe Washburn smiles politely at her, and skirts around her to get inside the bathroom. Yachi kicks herself for being in the way. She didn't even need to use the bathroom! She shouldn't have been blocking pretty girls from using it! She trudges around the less populated hallway to the kitchen, and sees Hinata standing by himself at the snack table in the living room. Daichi must have come and broken them up; Suga's always saying he's the only one who can get them to stop bickering. He waves Yachi over and smiles when she stops in front of him. 

  
"So how's Yamaguchi?" He asks. Yachi's mind blanks. Yamaguchi hasn't even arrived yet. Oh, but she did use him as her excuse to leave Hinata and Kageyama alone. 

  
She shrugs. "Where's Kageyama?"

  
Hinata's face sours. "He invited his  _mentors_  to the party. They just arrived I guess. He's so pretentious isn't he?" Yachi notes the excessive bitterness and salt in his tone. 

  
"You invited me, and I wasn't on the list." Hinata whips his head toward her and blinks owlishly. 

  
  
"No, no hey, Yachi." He says so gently, "That's not the same thing. Kageyama's friends don't even go to our school. At least the guys on the team could run into you on campus. And get this: Kageyama's friends go to our RIVAL School! That's what’s so messed up about Kageyama inviting  _his_  friends." Then Hinata brings his wandering gaze back to Yachi and focuses in on her. "Plus the guys all really like you!"

 

Yachi blushes at that. "I haven't even met most of them."

  
  
"Yeah, but they know you're sweet. You've met Suga and Yamaguchi and Daichi and they all like you. Plus I'm pretty sure if anyone talked bad about you Daichi would kick them off the team." He gives her a conspiratorial wink. "Even Kageyama likes you, which I guess I can't fault him for. Even if his taste in friends is otherwise super shitty." 

  
  
Yachi rolls her eyes. "You  _could_  try to make your crush on him less obvious." and Hinata clutches his chest at that. "I didn't just hear what I think I heard? Yachi Hitoka personifying her costume as the saltiest person here!" Yachi laughs and swats at Hinata. In his revelry though, he spots someone in the crowd and shakes Yachi's shoulders to get her attention. 

  
  
"Look! Another Firefly fan!" And Yachi flushes scarlet. She aggressively shushes him now, and his smile grows from rambunctious joy to unadulterated glee. "Ooooh!" He singsongs. "You liiiiike her!" Yachi stamps her feet on the ground and pouts. He wraps an arm around her and leaning in he stage-whispers, "I could introduce you two if you want!" And Yachi looks at him like he's grown two heads. 

  
  
"Thanks Shouyou, but I'd rather not make a fool of myself. What would I even say to her?" 

  
  
And now Hinata levels her with a scathingly blank look. "Are you serious right now? You've talked me into a coma over the cancellation of Firefly, and all the trivia from it and you don't know what to talk about with a girl dressed as a character from Firefly? Well gee."

  
"Okay, fine." Yachi sucks in a deep breath and marches over to Zoe. She's about halfway there before she starts feeling overwhelmingly gay and need to turn around. It's like a gay force field she can't get past. Tanaka, the taller skeleton boy from earlier, takes her sudden swerve his way as indication of her interest in playing pong against Ennoshita and Suga. Suga smiles reassuringly from across the table and with a flick of his wrist, sinks the ball into the cup. A few rounds go by, and Yachi and Tanaka aren't doing too badly all things considered, until Zoe takes Ennoshita's place on Suga's team. She has the daintiest fingers, the most graceful hands, the most pristine manicure, such perfect form and posture. Hoo Boy, Yachi is feeling it Mr Krabs and excuses herself for a breath of fresh air. 

  
As soon as the crisp night air hits her face she lets out a stressed groan, burying her face in her hands. 

  
  
"Yachi?" She perks up, utterly mortified. Buzz Lightyear Yamaguchi waves at her and moves closer. "You okay?" 

  
  
Yachi, no longer paralyzed by mortification, nods and accepts a greeting hug from him. Behind him, Woody Tsukishima nods acknowledgement, but otherwise keeps his distance. She mumbles into Yamaguchi's chest armor, "Just a pretty girl." And Yamaguchi's little bell tinkling laugh makes her feel less derided and more goofy. Her gaze flickers back to Tsukishima, and she sees him restraining his annoyance. She probably interrupted something. She squeezes Yamaguchi closer for a beat longer, sucking up all of his warmth and vicarious romantic success.

  
  
"Well, I should probably go talk to her then."  She says awkwardly. Tsukishima's shoulders slump in relief. 

  
  
"What a champ. Go get her tiger." Yamaguchi bumps her shoulder with his fist and she returns a smile. 

  
  
She clenches her sweaty fists to build up some energy to finally talk to Zoe. Zoe is all alone at the snack table. She can do this. She stops every few feet telling herself she isn't actually doing this, but forges on with the resolution to just talk to her finally. Only to stop a few feet later. "Oh what am I waiting for?" She asks herself impatiently. and starts for Zoe again. Yachi stops behind Zoe, only an arms length away. She just has to tap her shoulder, say something about Firefly and hope for the best. Her nerves get the best of her and she spins around, bumping into an equally nervous Cat. They both squeak in surprise and clutch their chests. She has to look straight up to see his face. He towers, but apologetically. 

  
"Asahi, Hello!" Yachi hears behind her. She freezes. Asahi rubs the back of his neck and greets Zoe, and Yachi slowly turns around. Oh boy. Face to face with the prettiest girl in the whole universe. Sandwiched between two Upperclassmen. Yachi might actually faint.  Zoe smiles at her and introduces herself. An introduction Yachi mostly doesn't register and she stutters out "I like your Firefly costume." and Zoe-no, Kiyoko- smiles the brightest, toothiest grin. "I'm so glad you recognized it! I didn't think anyone here watched it!"

  
  
And now it's suddenly really easy to talk to Kiyoko. Yachi nerds out on her theories and regrets and favorite moments and maybe lets it slip that she’s had a crush on Zoe Washburn for years. Kiyoko responds with "Hard Same." and they both regard each other for a beat before busting out laughing. Yachi vaguely registers that she's been so much more talkative (and probably over sharing and info-dumping) at this party than any other moment in her whole college career so far. And the fact that she's being so talkative to such a cute girl, a cute girl she's never spoken to before, is just a bonus!

 

Before she knows it Hinata's tackling her from behind and whisper yells, "Ready to leave when you are!" before he winks and falls back into the dwindling crowd. Yachi nods but she and Kiyoko keep talking, about their majors, their hometowns, family, club activities, and skincare routines. Specifically avoiding he subject of Halloweens Past. The volume of the music is turned down lower as more people start heading home. Hinata did say he was ready to leave whenever, so Yachi decides to brave the inevitable teasing and tell Kiyoko about last Halloween.

 

“Suga actually picked this costume out for me. Last year I dressed as Scully from the X-Files.” She pauses to smile at the memory. “I used to dress up as some strong sci-fi heroine every year for Halloween and I loved it so much! I never saw any of the gossip and teasing the other kids passed around. Not until last year.” Kiyoko nods and squeezes Yachi’s hand in hers. That warmth gives her the strength she needs to continue. “Our school had a Halloween party about a week before the 31st. Afterwards, a bunch of kids in my grade decided to pull a nasty prank and passed around this fake article they wrote about me using pictures of that costume.” If not for Kiyoko’s hand in hers, she would have wrapped her arms around herself. “It was humiliating, I wanted to switch schools. There’s no way I was going to dress up for Halloween after that.”

 

She looks up at Kiyoko with a watery smile. “It was the only year I didn’t dress up.” Kiyoko squeezes her hand and envelops Yachi in the softest hug she’s ever gotten.

 

“I’m glad you dressed up this year, even if it wasn’t what you were planning to dress as.” Yachi huffs a laugh and buries her face in Kiyoko’s shoulder.

                              

She doesn't remember exactly how long they spent talking about their significantly happier past Halloweens, but more and more people file out, until Yachi can count the guests on her hand. Kiyoko sees the time and deflates. She looks down to Yachi with rueful eyes and with a pretty pout on her plush lips, explains that she needs to leave soon. She lingers longer than she needs to, before Yachi sees the light bulb go off in her head. Kiyoko maneuvers her limber fingers in a mesmerizing conductor's symphony on her phone. When she hands it to Yachi, she's chewing on her lip with a hopeful twinge in her eyebrows. Yachi is over the moon. She types in her phone number and corrects the spelling on her name. Kiyoko breathes out a laugh and smiles at the screen like she can't believe how lucky she is. Yachi's phone pings not a moment later. Kiyoko waves as she leaves, and Yachi has never been gayer. 

  
  
She sighs and stumbles around the corner of the living room collecting her umbrella and salt container and looking for Hinata. She finds him sharing bat-shaped pretzels with Kageyama in the periphery of the room, and she gives him an appraising look. She nods sagely. Hinata pops up, waves to Kageyama, and follows Yachi out the front door of Daichi's house. 

  
  
In the quiet he looks over to her and in a hoarse whisper asks, "Did you have fun?" And Yachi smiles fondly before nodding. "I really did. I'm glad I came."

  
  
"Me too. I'm sure Kiyoko's glad she's no longer be the only girl at these Volleyball Events." Then he sends a teasing elbow to her shoulder. "Any chance I can convince you to join to volleyball club?" 

  
  
She pokes his nose "Don't push your luck, or I'll ask you about your boyfriend." Hinata turns as red as his costume and splutters. "He's not my- We are NOT- Yachi! You're taking this Salt Role too seriously!" and Yachi giggles. 

  
  
She huddles into Hinata's body heat some more the whole walk to their dorms and stops fighting a smile half way there. She can say with confidence that this was her most favorite Halloween ever.


End file.
